FROM COSMOS
TO CIVILIZATION
All episodes/Episode 8.3

Episode 8.3 · 14 min

why Homo sapiens is the only human species left, and the Neanderthal and Denisovan DNA living people

Why are we the only human species left when our ancestors had children with Neanderthals and Denisovans? This episode follows those encounters from western Asia across Ice Age Europe and Asia, revealing how early pioneers vanished, how Denisovan DNA still helps many Tibetans live at high altitude, and how pieces of the Neanderthal genome remain in living people.

Watch this film on YouTube ↗

Visual credits

33 sources

Sources and credits for imagery used in this film, including material incorporated into explanatory animations.

  • Natural Earth 1:50m land polygons

    Natural Earth

    View original source ↗Source licence: Public domain

    Land polygons and coastlines rendered with original colours and animated overlays.

    Made with Natural Earth. Free vector and raster map data @ naturalearthdata.com.

  • Natural Earth 1:50m land polygons

    Natural Earth

    View original source ↗Source licence: Public domain

    Land polygons and coastlines reframed and rendered with original colours, site markers and animated overlays.

    Made with Natural Earth. Free vector and raster map data @ naturalearthdata.com.

  • Misliya-1

    Clumsystiggy

    View original source ↗Source licence: CC BY 4.0

  • Skhul V skull

    Unità di Antropologia - Dip. di Biologia, Unipi

    View original source ↗Source licence: CC BY 4.0

    3D model rendered as a turntable animation; excerpted.

  • Homo neanderthalensis: La Ferrassie 1

    Service de biologie du comportement (ULiège)

    View original source ↗Source licence: CC BY 4.0

    3D model rendered as a turntable animation; excerpted.

  • Harbin cranium: Homo longi holotype

    Fu et al. (2025)

    View original source ↗Source licence: CC BY 4.0

    Cropped and modified from Cell, Figure 1A, doi:10.1016/j.cell.2025.05.040. Frontal photograph padded for the screen; its outline also traced and simplified into the skull icon carried through the family-tree animations.

  • Harbin cranium, frontal view

    Fu et al. (2025)

    View original source ↗Source licence: CC BY 4.0

    Cropped and modified from Cell, Figure 1A, doi:10.1016/j.cell.2025.05.040; the complete frontal cranium is retained and padded with white to fit the screen.

  • Denisova Cave entrance

    Демин Алексей Барнаул (Aleksei Demin)

    View original source ↗Source licence: CC BY-SA 4.0

    Cropped to the cave mouth, excluding the poles.

  • Denisova Cave

    Демин Алексей Барнаул (Aleksei Demin)

    View original source ↗Source licence: CC BY-SA 4.0

    The cave-mouth portion is shown, cropped to exclude the poles.

  • Landscape of the Tibetan Plateau

    Jan Kranendonk

    View original source ↗Source licence: CC BY-SA 4.0

  • Ilsenhöhle beneath Ranis castle and stone points from Ranis

    Tim Schüler (TLDA); Josephine Schubert, Museum Burg Ranis

    View original source ↗

    © Tim Schüler TLDA / Josephine Schubert, Museum Burg Ranis. Stone-tools image: CC BY-ND; credit Josephine Schubert, Museum Burg Ranis. Credit must be given to the creator. No derivatives or adaptations of the work are permitted.

  • Ranis leaf point, view 2b

    Thilo Parg

    View original source ↗Source licence: CC BY-SA 4.0

  • Ranis leaf point, view 2a

    Thilo Parg

    View original source ↗Source licence: CC BY-SA 4.0

  • Excavating the LRJ layers at Ranis

    Marcel Weiss

    View original source ↗

    © Marcel Weiss

  • Animal bone fragments from Ranis

    Geoff M. Smith

    View original source ↗

    Cropped to the animal bone fragments.

    © Geoff M. Smith

  • Animal bones from Ranis

    Geoff M. Smith

    View original source ↗

    Only the animal-bone portion is shown.

    © Geoff M. Smith

  • Human bone fragment from Ranis

    Tim Schüler (TLDA)

    View original source ↗

    © Tim Schüler TLDA

  • Zlatý kůň hill

    Pastorius

    View original source ↗Source licence: CC BY-SA 3.0

    Cropped to the hill, excluding the building.

  • Zlatý kůň at Koněprusy

    Pastorius

    View original source ↗Source licence: CC BY-SA 3.0

    The hill portion is shown, cropped to exclude the building.

  • CT reconstruction of the Zlatý kůň skull

    Kay Prüfer, Cosimo Posth, He Yu, Alexander Stoessel, Maria A. Spyrou, Thibaut Deviese, Marco Mattonai, Erika Ribechini, Thomas Higham, Petr Velemínský, Jaroslav Brůžek and Johannes Krause

    View original source ↗Source licence: CC BY 4.0

    Figure 1b cropped to the frontal and lateral skull reconstructions and scale bar; panel letter removed.

  • The Zlatý kůň fossil: virtual skull reconstruction

    Kay Prüfer, Cosimo Posth, He Yu, Alexander Stoessel, Maria A. Spyrou, Thibaut Deviese, Marco Mattonai, Erika Ribechini, Thomas Higham, Petr Velemínský, Jaroslav Brůžek and Johannes Krause

    View original source ↗Source licence: CC BY 4.0

    Only the frontal and lateral CT skull reconstructions and scale bar from Figure 1b are shown; panel letter removed.

  • Zlatý kůň skull photographs

    Kay Prüfer, Cosimo Posth, He Yu, Alexander Stoessel, Maria A. Spyrou, Thibaut Deviese, Marco Mattonai, Erika Ribechini, Thomas Higham, Petr Velemínský, Jaroslav Brůžek and Johannes Krause

    View original source ↗Source licence: CC BY-SA 4.0 (Commons record); original article CC BY 4.0

    Extended Data Figure 1 cropped to skull photographs in panels a–b; panel letters removed using adjacent black background.

  • Skeletal remains from Zlatý kůň

    Kay Prüfer, Cosimo Posth, He Yu, Alexander Stoessel, Maria A. Spyrou, Thibaut Deviese, Marco Mattonai, Erika Ribechini, Thomas Higham, Petr Velemínský, Jaroslav Brůžek and Johannes Krause

    View original source ↗Source licence: CC BY-SA 4.0 (Commons record); original article CC BY 4.0

    Only the skull photographs from Extended Data Figure 1, panels a–b, are shown; panel letters removed using adjacent black background.

  • Neanderthal ancestry along the Zlatý kůň chromosomes

    Kay Prüfer, Cosimo Posth, He Yu, Alexander Stoessel, Maria A. Spyrou, Thibaut Deviese, Marco Mattonai, Erika Ribechini, Thomas Higham, Petr Velemínský, Jaroslav Brůžek and Johannes Krause

    View original source ↗Source licence: CC BY 4.0

    Figure 3 cropped to panel b, retaining chromosome bars, ancestry segments, legend and axes.

  • Ilsenhöhle, Ranis: north cave

    Ansgar Koreng

    View original source ↗Source licence: CC BY 3.0 DE

  • Natural Earth 1:50m country boundaries

    Natural Earth

    View original source ↗Source licence: Public domain

    Germany and Czechia outlines selected and rendered faintly in an original map animation.

    Made with Natural Earth. Free vector and raster map data @ naturalearthdata.com.

  • Natural Earth 1:50m country boundaries

    Natural Earth

    View original source ↗Source licence: Public domain

    Germany and Czechia outlines selected and rendered faintly in an original map animation.

    Made with Natural Earth. Free vector and raster map data @ naturalearthdata.com.

  • Ilsenhöhle, Ranis: south cave

    Ansgar Koreng

    View original source ↗Source licence: CC BY 3.0 DE

  • Late-Neanderthal sites and sampled bones

    Alba Bossoms Mesa, Elena Essel, Stéphane Peyrégne, Arev P. Sümer, Leonardo N. M. Iasi, Christian Heide, Divyaratan Popli, Cesare de Filippo, Marie-Theres Gansauge, Lars Gerullat, Laurin Lippik, Sarah Nagel, Birgit Nickel, Barbara Schellbach, Anna Schmidt, Johann Visagie, Antje Weihmann, Hugo Zeberg, Julia Zorn, Hélène Rougier, Isabelle Crevecoeur, Patrick Semal, Grégory Abrams, Thibaut Devièse, Stéphane Pirson, Kévin Di Modica, Pierre Cattelain, Christelle Draily, Michel Toussaint, Isabelle De Groote, Frido Welker, Cosimo Posth, Marie Soressi, Jean-Jacques Hublin, Johannes Krause, Svante Pääbo, Matthias Meyer, Janet Kelso, Benjamin M. Peter and Mateja Hajdinjak; bone photographs: E. Dewamme / Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Hélène Rougier et al. and Q. Cosnefroy et al.; map data: Natural Earth

    View original source ↗Source licence: CC BY 4.0

    Figure 1 cropped to panels a–b; panel letters, panel c, caption and body text excluded.

    Bone pictures in panel b of Spy 94a and Spy 8 reproduced from E. Dewamme and copyright Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS), CC BY 4.0. Other bone pictures in panel b adapted from Rougier et al., Scientific Reports 6, 29005 (2016), and Cosnefroy et al., Scientific Reports 15, 40741 (2025), under CC BY 4.0. Map made with Natural Earth.

  • Spy 8 femur: Spy8DE

    Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences

    View original source ↗Source licence: CC BY 4.0

    3D model rendered as a turntable animation; excerpted.

  • Gorham's Cave Complex

    Visit Gibraltar

    View original source ↗Source licence: CC BY 2.0

  • Gorham's Cave

    Gibmetal77

    View original source ↗Source licence: CC BY 3.0

  • Baishiya Karst Cave

    Dongju Zhang

    View original source ↗Source licence: CC BY-SA 4.0

Stock footage

28 items

Licensed stock footage used in this film, with each item’s creator and source page.

Research references

Selected sources from the episode’s research and scientific figures.

  1. Vernot and Akey 2014 ↗
  2. Sümer ↗
  3. Chen 2020 ↗
  4. Li 2024 ↗
  5. Hershkovitz 2018 ↗
  6. critique ↗
  7. reply ↗
  8. Zaidner 2025 ↗
  9. Kuhlwilm 2016 ↗
  10. Platt et al. ↗
  11. Iasi 2024 ↗
  12. Vallini ↗
  13. Fu 2015 ↗
  14. Reilly 2026 ↗
  15. Larena 2021 ↗
  16. Xia 2024 ↗
  17. Rao ↗
  18. Ruan ↗
  19. Huerta-Sánchez 2014 ↗
  20. Peng 2017 ↗
  21. Zhang 2021 ↗
  22. Mylopotamitaki 2024 ↗
  23. Pederzani 2024 ↗
  24. Smith 2024 ↗
  25. Prüfer 2021 ↗
  26. MPI release ↗
  27. Higham 2014 ↗
  28. Devièse 2021 ↗
  29. Bossoms Mesa 2026 ↗
  30. Slimak 2024 ↗
  31. Burke 2026 ↗
  32. Churchill 2009 ↗
  33. Shanidar A primary study ↗
  34. Finlayson 2006 ↗
  35. Wood 2013 ↗
  36. Stringer 2008 ↗
  37. NHM ↗
  38. Skov 2020 ↗
  39. Dannemann 2016 ↗
  40. TLR erratum ↗
  41. Dannemann/Kelso 2017 ↗
  42. Zeberg 2020 ↗
  43. 2021 ↗
  44. Degioanni 2019 ↗
  45. Vaesen 2019 ↗
  46. Kolodny & Feldman 2017 ↗
  47. Hajdinjak 2021 ↗
  48. Staubwasser 2018 ↗
  49. Climate of the Past 19, 915 (2023) ↗
  50. Amadei 2025 ↗
  51. Timmermann 2020 ↗
  52. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41747031/ ↗
  53. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9683707/ ↗
  54. https://www.gorhamscave.gi/gorhams-cave-complex/the-site ↗
  55. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRXZjv7iM5k ↗
  56. https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/items/268d20bb-998e-45e7-8e46-16661e113ddd ↗
  57. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4933530/ ↗
  58. https://english.tau.ac.il/node/3827 ↗
  59. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1376-z ↗
  60. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature13810 ↗
  61. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2019.02.035 ↗
  62. https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.10.20.683404 ↗
  63. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.20.683404v1.full ↗
  64. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.05.06.723201v1.full ↗
  65. https://doi.org/10.1051/medsci/2026127 ↗
  66. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8596304/ ↗
  67. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07612-9 ↗
  68. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnXWXHP7QpA ↗
  69. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhfPNntxK3k ↗
  70. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5400376/ ↗
  71. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-18638-8 ↗
  72. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8179186/ ↗
  73. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aat8824 ↗
  74. https://www.eurekalert.org/multimedia/1013193 ↗
  75. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21555570/ ↗
  76. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41144685/ ↗
  77. https://evolutionaryanthropology.duke.edu/sites/evolutionaryanthropology.duke.edu/files/documents/Churchilleal2009.pdf ↗
  78. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1411529111 ↗
  79. https://www.gorhamscave.gi/news/recent-discovery-at-vanguard-cave-19 ↗
  80. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep45940 ↗
  81. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abj9496 ↗
  82. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4716682/ ↗
  83. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4746360/ ↗
  84. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5630192/ ↗
  85. https://youtu.be/y25KCOKNcJE ↗
  86. https://youtu.be/bDOIjvl_SHs ↗
  87. https://youtu.be/uol9M4OMKlY ↗
  88. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ilsenh%C3%B6hle,_Ranis,_Nordh%C3%B6hle,_151004,_ako.jpg ↗
  89. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ilsenh%C3%B6hle,_Ranis,_S%C3%BCdh%C3%B6hle,_151004,_ako.jpg ↗
  90. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jerzmanowice_point_Lincombian-Ranisian-Jerzmanowician_LRJ_2a.jpg ↗
  91. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jerzmanowice_point_Lincombian-Ranisian-Jerzmanowician_LRJ_2b.jpg ↗
  92. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Skeletal_remains_from_Zlat%C3%BD_k%C5%AF%C5%88.jpg ↗
  93. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gibraltar_1_skull_cast.jpg ↗
  94. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gorham%27s_Cave.jpg ↗
  95. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gorham%27s_Cave_Complex.jpg ↗
  96. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Qafzeh_6_cast.jpg ↗
  97. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Eingang_der_Qafzeh-H%C3%B6hle.jpg ↗
  98. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stratigraphy_of_Qafzeh_Cave_Terrace_(Middle_Paleolithic).jpg ↗
  99. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Oase_2_skull_(Homo_sapiens).jpg ↗
  100. https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/gibraltal-1-skull-142e4b654c6e474ba1eba1a758b76d90 ↗
  101. https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/8a9dd751934d4f6eac5cd4b086b05e27 ↗
  102. https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/7a661bacdf3d490ba845b01294ccab5f ↗
  103. https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/58f125cde4bc46018a877c28b00db68e ↗
  104. https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/7cdccfea780e45cfac958fd97a86ad71 ↗
  105. https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/51b7777b24084bf5b1ab4f7fe20f2e5a ↗
  106. https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/homo-neanderthalensis-la-ferrassie-1-deee9c36d66548ef82a7ae32c25a707b ↗
  107. https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/6b2a89509c3f43968495e388946a1148 ↗
  108. https://communities.springernature.com/posts/using-fragmented-bone-to-reconstruct-the-lifeways-of-homo-sapiens-in-northwest-europe-more-than-45-000-years-ago ↗
  109. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxwdsU02G7U ↗
  110. https://elements.envato.com/tibetan-plateau-V7AQ65E ↗
  111. https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Videos/2016/06/Earth_from_Space_Southern_Tibetan_Plateau ↗
  112. https://github.com/StephanePeyregne/calibratePSMC ↗
  113. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdYwMLSNHnU ↗
  114. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKWLVNGFrno ↗
  115. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNZKTm0khYM ↗
  116. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGfhcHE55o4 ↗

Music

  • Original score
    AgentHouse · Project-made score (From Cosmos to Civilization score catalog v4 with bespoke opening and closing)
    Impulse responses: Detmold University of Music SRIR database, CC BY 4.0.
Footage and image usage

Credits and usage times retained from the published edition or its production credit record. Where present, times identify visual appearances, not documentary chapters. Source and licence corrections are listed in the visual credits above.

  • ADDICTIVE_STOCK — 0:49-0:53
  • Alba Bossoms Mesa, Elena Essel, Stéphane Peyrégne, Arev P. Sümer, Leonardo N. M. Iasi, Christian Heide, Divyaratan Popli, Cesare de Filippo, Marie-Theres Gansauge, Lars Gerullat, Laurin Lippik, Sarah Nagel, Birgit Nickel, Barbara Schellbach, Anna Schmidt, Johann Visagie, Antje Weihmann, Hugo Zeberg, Julia Zorn, Hélène Rougier, Isabelle Crevecoeur, Patrick Semal, Grégory Abrams, Thibaut Devièse, Stéphane Pirson, Kévin Di Modica, Pierre Cattelain, Christelle Draily, Michel Toussaint, Isabelle De Groote, Frido Welker, Cosimo Posth, Marie Soressi, Jean-Jacques Hublin, Johannes Krause, Svante Pääbo, Matthias Meyer, Janet Kelso, Benjamin M. Peter and Mateja Hajdinjak; bone photographs: E. Dewamme / Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Hélène Rougier et al. and Q. Cosnefroy et al.; map data: Natural Earth — 11:14-11:19
  • AmazingAerial — 12:14-12:15
  • Anetlanda — 12:15-12:20
  • Ansgar Koreng — 9:06-9:13, 10:19-10:29
  • BlackBoxGuild — 5:55-6:00, 11:04-11:07, 11:07-11:11, 11:22-11:25, 11:32-11:36, 11:53-11:55, 12:12-12:14, 12:34-12:38
  • cavanimages — 0:55-0:57
  • Clumsystiggy — 1:49-1:57
  • Dongju Zhang — 12:38-12:47
  • evgeniyqw — 6:23-6:27
  • FrameStock — 13:15-13:25
  • Fu et al. (2025) — 4:50-4:54, 2:42-2:58, 3:02-3:16, 3:47-3:57, 4:44-4:50, 5:08-5:17, 5:42-5:47, 9:57-10:00, 10:12-10:14, 11:44-11:52
  • Geoff M. Smith — 7:10-7:17
  • Gibmetal77 — 12:20-12:27
  • hu7886720 — 5:47-5:55
  • ivz — 13:25-13:28
  • Jan Kranendonk — 6:18-6:23
  • Kay Prüfer, Cosimo Posth, He Yu, Alexander Stoessel, Maria A. Spyrou, Thibaut Deviese, Marco Mattonai, Erika Ribechini, Thomas Higham, Petr Velemínský, Jaroslav Brůžek and Johannes Krause — 7:59-8:06, 8:06-8:19, 8:57-9:03
  • Marcel Weiss — 7:05-7:10
  • Michal Ritter — 8:19-8:23
  • mmmvideos — 7:50-7:52
  • mountaikens — 7:36-7:41
  • Natural Earth — 0:07-0:15, 0:35-0:40, 1:33-1:49, 3:27-3:35, 3:43-3:47, 4:25-4:35, 5:26-5:33, 9:19-9:25, 9:52-9:57, 10:36-10:40, 10:40-10:54
  • Pastorius — 7:55-7:59
  • Pro-Stock — 3:16-3:19, 3:19-3:25
  • punyawee22 — 4:38-4:39
  • ronib1979 — 1:57-2:03, 2:26-2:28
  • Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences — 11:19-11:22
  • Service de biologie du comportement (ULiège) — 2:13-2:20
  • Stockagent_io — 7:32-7:36
  • stu_dio_sd — 11:25-11:26
  • TDFly — 11:26-11:28
  • Thilo Parg — 6:55-7:01, 7:01-7:05
  • Tim Schüler (TLDA) — 7:17-7:26
  • Tim Schüler (TLDA); Josephine Schubert, Museum Burg Ranis — 6:42-6:55
  • Unità di Antropologia — 2:10-2:13
  • Visit Gibraltar — 11:55-12:03
  • WhiteMountMedia — 4:54-5:02
  • wildlifeandnaturestudios — 0:53-0:55
  • world_footage — 2:03-2:05
  • Xtremelevel — 3:57-4:04
  • Демин Алексей Барнаул (Aleksei Demin) — 5:33-5:42

How this film was made

Created and editorially directed by Anders Lunde using a custom production system developed over six months. AI assists research, drafting, programming, and visual production; I review and edit the material and make the final editorial decisions. Narration uses text-to-speech. Visuals combine custom-built scientific animations, AI-generated reconstructions, and credited scientific imagery.

Generated reconstructions illustrate scientific interpretations. They are distinct from photographs, specimens, and measured data.

More about the creator and production →